An advisory panel (chaired by Brent Scowcroft) has found that the White House was desperately searching for evidence of Iraqi nuclear transgressions when it included a discredited claim in last year's State of the Union address. The Washington Post reports that a source familiar with the findings of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board says the panel has concluded the White House made "no deliberate effort to fabricate" the claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa. Instead, the claim was written into the president's speech as part of an effort "to grab onto something affirmative" about Saddam Hussein's alleged nuclear program.
December 31, 2003 4:14 AM